To See You Smile
by CJ Logan
Summary: It broke Emily's heart to ever see JJ upset. She couldn't stand to see the life drained from someone who was so genuine, so caring, so selfless.


**Author's Note:** This is a true event, with a little twist to make it work with Emily/JJ, of course. This is one of the sweetest things anyone has ever done for me, so I hope you enjoy as much I did the real life event. ;)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Criminal Minds.

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**To See You Smile**

Emily Prentiss didn't like karaoke. She never could understand why any sane person would willingly stand in front of a crowd of complete strangers and humiliate themself. She enjoyed being a part of the audience. Now that, she couldn't get enough of; watching said humiliation. She'd watched her friends do it plenty of times, and laughed along as they belted out drunken, dramatic renditions of classics. But there was just something about getting up there, purposely drawing attention to yourself, that she just couldn't comprehend. Being slightly inebriated helped, she'd supposed, but somehow she still couldn't see the logic.

All of this ran through Emily's head as Garcia pulled out her phone and began to play a video that she'd recorded the night before.

"This is my favourite part! Sooo very smooth!" Garcia exclaimed, her eyes fixed firmly on the screen in front of her, a huge, goofy grin beaming across her face.

Emily giggled along with her friend, watching the person on the screen as she began to climb onto the stage and stumbled a little on the last step.

After a slightly confused look towards the step, as if it had come out of nowhere to purposely trip her, the woman on the small screen turned back and headed towards the middle of the stage. With a huge drunken grin on her face, she was met by a loud cheer, to which she responded by throwing her arms up and letting out an equally loud raspy 'woo!' for herself.

It took the woman a second to catch up with the song after the intro had started, but slowly the words came to her, albeit completely out of tune and time. As the song continued it became clear that the woman on the screen had stopped caring about all the eyes that were directly focused on her, and she began to belt out the song as loud as her lungs would allow her, jumping aimlessly around the stage, clenching her fist whilst she sang particular lines.

"Hold on to that feeeeeeeeliiiinnng!" Garcia sang, mimicking the dramatic hand gestures seen on the screen in front of her and Emily lowered her head and laughed quietly at her friend's satirical humour.

As the brunette lifted her gaze back to the video in front of her, she felt her stomach flutter a little. As the camera moved slightly, bringing JJ into focus on the left side of the screen, Emily helplessly turned her attention from the singing idiot in the background to her. She smiled to herself as she melted into the huge grin that was playing across JJ's face and reflecting in her deep blue eyes. She loved seeing her that happy.

Emily had fallen for JJ from the second she'd met her. When she'd received coldness from the rest of team, she felt she had been given a comfort in JJ; an angel. Her warmth and kindness radiated off of her immediately, making Emily feel welcome in an instant. As she struggled to prove her worth to Hotch and the rest of the team, and earn her place, JJ had been there to reassure her, to comfort her, to guide her.

She wasn't naive though, she knew her feelings would never be reciprocated. She knew JJ was straight, and she also knew that even if that wasn't the case, she herself couldn't break up a family; so she happily settled for loving her from afar. As long as she knew that JJ was happy, that was enough for her. It broke Emily's heart to ever see her upset. She couldn't stand to see the life drained from someone who was so genuine, so caring, so selfless.

A few weeks into her time at the BAU, when she'd become slowly aware of JJ's tendency to mask her emotions with a smile, especially when certain cases got to her, Emily made it her responsibility to always pull her out of that hole whenever she found her there. She loved to see her smile, to see the colour back in her cheeks and the twinkle back in her eyes - but loved it even more so when she knew that she'd been the cause.

Emily's attention was suddenly turned back with a cringe to the singing idiot in the background when the woman attempted, and failed miserably, to hit a particularly high note. Her voice had become more croaky now from the rate she'd been belting out the lyrics, but she carried on determined, and completely indifferent to how ridiculous she looked. Emily watched as the woman finished the song and took several bows to an appreciative and equally drunken audience.

She laughed hard as Garcia began to clap and cheer next to her in time with the audience on the screen, but a gentle voice snapped her from her reverie.

"I still can't believe you did that just to cheer me up.."

Emily turned and smiled as she put a face to the voice, before rising to her feet and heading towards the door.

_It was worth every second to see you smile, beautiful_, she thought to herself, still smiling, as she brushed gently past JJ and left the room.


End file.
